Ngorongoro Conservation Area

Ngorongoro Conservation Area includes its eponymous famous crater, Olduvai Gorge, and huge expanses of highland plains, scrub bush, and forests that cover approximately 8300 square kilometres. A protected area, only indigenous tribes such as the Masaai are allowed to live within its borders, although it is visited by many Tanzania Safari tourists.

A visit to the crater is a main drawcard for Tanzania Safari tourists and a definite world-class attraction. Within the crater rim, large herds of zebra and wildebeest graze nearby while sleeping lions laze in the sun. Just outside the crater's ridge, tall Masaai herd their cattle and goats over green pastures through the highland slopes, living alongside the wildlife (and Tanzania Safari visitors) as they have for centuries.

Lake Ndutu and Masek, both alkaline soda lakes are home to rich game populations, as well as a series of peaks and volcanoes and make the Conservation Area a unique landscape.

Ngorongoro Conservation Area is home to Olduvai Gorge, where the Leakeys discovered the hominoid remains of a 1.8 million year old skeleton of Australopithecus boisei, one of the distinct links of the human evolutionary chain. In a small canyon just north of the crater, the Leakeys and their team of international archaeologists unearthed the ruins of at least three distinct hominoid species, and also came upon a complete series of hominoid footprints estimated to be over 3.7 million years old. Evacuated fossils show that the area is one of the oldest sites of hominoid habitation in the world.

Besides Tanzania safaris by vehicle to Ngorongoro Crater, Olduvai Gorge, and surrounding attractions, walking safaris through the Ngorongoro Conservation Area are becoming increasingly popular options for Tanzania Safari tourists at this unique destination.